Prediction of Insulator Flashover Based on Leakage Current and Humidity Measurements

A procedure for prediction of flashover on ceramic insulators based on leakage currents and environmental humidity measurements is presented. A new approach, which takes into account the connection between leakage currents and humidity, for prediction of flashover is presented. The analysis of the leakage current peaks and humidity measurements on the insulator surface for long and different periods of time suggest that as the flashover would be closer, the mean leakage current peak would be higher. Based on this assumption, a new real time process uses a fuzzy logic method to combine humidity and leakage current peak measurements to produce a severity scale. Experimental results are presented.